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Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Chronology

1820 October, first public performance at the Sopron Casino. November 26: concert at the Esterhazy palace in Pozsony: stipend from the Hungarian aristocrats.

1821 His parents take him to live in Vienna where he studies piano with Czerny, and composition with Salieri.

1822 Success in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles. Public performance in Vienna.

1823 Vienna concert, in the presence of Beethoven. First performance in Pest: May 1: at the “Zu den Sieben Kurfiirsten”. Others on May 10, 17, 24. Goes to live in Paris, on the way performs in various cities, including Munich and Stuttgart. December: arrives in Paris. Studies composition with Paer.

1830 Grows disgusted with the virtuoso’s career. Reads extensively. Contact with numerous artists, including Lamartine, Hugo and Heine. Attends Saint-Simonist meetings. December 4: meets Berlioz, and next day attends premiere of the “Fantastic Symphony”.

1831 Hears Paganini for the first time. Meets Chopin and Mendelssohn.

1832 Attends the lectures of Fetis.

1833 Performs at two Berlioz concerts. Witness at the marriage of Berlioz and Harriet Smithson. Disciple of Abbe Lamennais.

1835 Plays at a Berlioz concert. Marie d’Agoult leaves her family for Liszt. They reside in Switzerland. Liszt teaches at the Geneva Conservatory. December 18: his daughter, Blandine born.

1836 Performs in Lyon and Paris. Rivalry with Thalberg. Summer: Geneva. Arrives in Paris with Marie on October 16.

1837 Introduces Chopin to George Sand. Chamber music concerts in Paris with Urhan and Batta. March 31: performs with Thalberg in the salon of Princess Belgiojoso. Spring, summer: Nohant, he and Marie are guests of George Sand. From September: Italy. December 24, Como: his daughter, Cosima, is born.

1838 With Marie in Milan, Venice. Alone: concerts in Vienna, for the benefit of flood victims of Hungary. Summer: with Marie in Lugano. Northern Italian concerts.

1839 With Marie in Rome. May 9: his son, Daniel, is born. Summer: Lucca, San Rossore. October 3: pledges to contribute from his own resources the sum lacking for a Beethoven statue. Marie goes to Paris with the two little girls. Liszt gives concerts in Vienna. In Hungary once again. Concerts: Pozsony (December 19, 20, 22), Pest (December 27, 29).

1841 Brussels, Liege. Paris concert. First meeting with Wagner. April 26: concert with Berlioz for the benefit of the Beethoven statue. May-June: England. July: Hamburg, Kiel, Copenhagen. Summer: Nonnenwerth, with Marie d’Agoult, and the children. September 18: enters the “Unity” Lodge of the Freemasons. November: in Weimar for the first time. Jena, Dresden, Leipzig, Halle, Berlin, etc.: concerts.

1842 Berlin concerts. A member of the Prussian Royal Academy of Arts, honorary doctorate conferred on him by the University of Konigsberg. Concerts in Mitava, Derpt, Riga. April: first concert in Saint Petersburg. June 30: benefit concert in Paris. July 20: Liege, Gretry memorial concert. September: second time in Nonnenwerth. October: Thuringian concert tour. Weimar: court conductor in extraordinary service. Concert tour with Rubini in Germany and Holland.

1843 January: concerts in Berlin, Breslau and Silesian towns. February 1: conducts “The Magic Flute” in Breslau. April-May: concerts: Warsaw, Saint Petersburg, Moscow, etc. Meets Glinka and Dargomizhsky. Hamburg. The last time in Nonnenwerth with his family. Autumn: concerts in Germany. End of December: enters service at Weimar.

1844 January 7: conducts for the first time in Weimar. Concerts there and in other German towns (January-March), in Paris and elsewhere in France (April). Visit to Lamartine at Chateau de Saint-Pont. Encounters Mme d’Artigaux-Caroline de Saint-Cricq. October-December: concerts: Zurich, Spain and Portugal.

1847 Concert tour in countries along the Danube and in the Ukraine. February: makes the acquaintance in Kiev of Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein. Guest of the princess at Woronince. Lemberg-Czernovtsy-Iasi-Constantinople. Concerts in Odessa. Elisavetgrad: last concerts of his virtuoso period. From September: Woronince, as the guest of the princess.

1849 The princess’s request for a divorce rejected. They are together at the Altenburg in Weimar. February 16: Liszt conducts “Tannhauser” in Weimar. May: Wagner in flight finds asylum in Liszt’s home. August 28: premiere: Tasso, the Goethe March. September-December: Helgoland Hamburg, Bad Eilsen.

1850 Raff in Weimar. February: premiere of first version of Ce qu’on entend. October: Joachim leader of the Weimar orchestra. August 24: premiere of Prometheus. August 28: world premiere of “Lohengrin” in Weimar, conducted by Liszt.

1851 June: Biilow Liszt’s pupil. Premiere: “Harold in Italy” (Berlioz). Second version of Ce qu’on entend. Second version of Tasso.

1856 January: Vienna: conducts at the Mozart centenary commemorations. February-March: Berlioz conducts in Weimar. ”Corsaire Overture”, “The Damnation of Faust”. April: Verdi’s “I due Foscari”. Biilow proposes to Cosima. May: Merseburg: first performance of B-A-C-H Prelude and Fugue August 11-September 14: Pest. August 26-27: public full rehearsal of the Gran Mass, in the National Museum’s hall of state. August 31: the performance of the mass at the consecration of the Esztergom Basilica. September 4: the Gran Mass, at the Inner City Parish Church. September 8: National Theatre: Les Preludes, Hungaria, Liszt conducting. Vienna, Prague October: a visit to Wagner in Zurich with the princess. Munich: meets Kaulbach.

1857 January 7: Concerto in A and first performance of the last version of Ce qu’on entend, Weimar. January 22: Sonata in B minor first performance by Biilow. February 26: conducts a few of his works in Leipzig, strong attacks in the press. May 31-June 2: conducts his works at the Lower Rhine Music Festival. Attacked by Hiller. August 18: Cosima and Billow’s wedding with Liszt present. September 5 Weimar: premiere of the Faust Symphony, Die Ideale. October 22: marriage of Blandine and Emile Ollivier. November 7: premiere and failure of the Dante Symphony, Dresden. November 10: Breslau: premiere of Herolde funebre. December 29: Weimar: premiere of Hunnenschlacht. Growing intrigues, increasing difficulties in Liszt’s work in Weimar.

1859 January: disagreement between Wagner and Liszt. Biilow conducts a number of Liszt works in Berlin, Prague. April: premiere of the Huldigungsmarsch, Weimar, Order of the Iron Cross. October: premiere of Les Beatitudes, Weimar. December 13: Berlin: Daniel Liszt dies. The princess loses favour at the court. Liszt’s position is increasingly untenable.

1860 Protest against the new music – with the signatures of Brahms, Joachim, Grimm and Scholz. May: the princess travels to Rome, to plead with the Pope in the matter of her divorce. Makes his will in a letter to the princess. August 25: Officer of the French Legion d’Honneur.

1861 March 8: premiere of the Mephisto Waltz (orchestra), Weimar. May: in South German towns with the Biilow couple. May 31: Commandeur of the French Legion d’Honneur. June 25: premiere of the 18th Psalm, Weimar. August: founding of the German General Music Association in Weimar, in the presence of Wagner, Cornelius and Biilow. August 17: leaves Weimar, sees Marie d’Agoult, Rossini and Gounod in Paris. Plays before Napoleon III and his wife at the Tuilleries. October 21: arrives in Rome. Preparations made for a marriage, which at the last moment is prevented by the Pope.

1862 September 9: Blandine Ollivier dies in St. Tropez.

1863 March 20: Rome, Palazzo Altieri: performance of the Cantico del Sol and the Beatitudes. June: Liszt moves into the Madonna del Rosario cloister, on the Monte Mario. Pope Pius IX pays him a visit there. Premiere of Slavimo, Rome.

1864 March 21: Rome: plays at a benefit concert. July: the guest of Cardinal Hohenlohe at the Villa d’Este. Plays for the Pope at Castel Gandolfo. August: at the Congress of the German General Music Association in Karlsruhe. With Wagner on the shore of Lake Starnberg, with Kaulbach in Munich. September: Berlin and other German towns. Paris: a meeting with Countess d’Agoult. Southern France, Rome. Death of Prince Sayn-Wittgenstein.

1865 March 23: Rome, Campidoglio, Palazzo Senatorio: performance of Les Beatitudes. April 15: premiere of Totentanz, in the Hague, Biilow. April 25: tonsure conferred upon Liszt by Cardinal Hohenlohe. He moves to the Vatican. May: the Villa d’Este. May 25: first performance of the Pater noster (from the Christus Oratorio): in Dessau. July 30: receives minor orders. August 1-September 12: Pest. August 14: public full rehearsal of Saint Elizabeth. August 15: premiere of Saint Elizabeth in the new Redoute (Municipal Assembly Rooms), Liszt conducting. August 23: Saint Elizabeth, Redoute August 29: Liszt concert at the Redoute, with Biilow and Remenyi. Visits to: Esztergom, Szekszard, etc. September: Rome.

1867 June 8: Buda: premiere of the Coronation Mass in the Matthias Church on the occasion of the coronation of Francis Joseph I and Elizabeth. July 6 Rome, Galleria Dantesca: first performance of the first part of the Christus Oratorio, conducted by Sgambati. August: Meiningen, Weimar (performance of Saint Elizabeth). Visit to Wagner at Tribschen. October: Rome.

1869 Again in Weimar, teaches in the Hofgartnerei. April 21-May 4: Pest, conducts his own works. September 22: Liszt present at the premiere of “Das Rheingold”. Winter: Villa d’Este. Meets Grieg in Rome.

1870 May 29: Weimar, Beethoven centenary commemoration: conducts his Second Beethoven Cantata and the ‘Ninth Symphony’. July: in Munich Lenbach paints his portrait. August 1-November 16: Szekszard, with the Augusz family, meanwhile Pest, Kalocsa, Nadasd. August 25: Wagner and Cosima’s marriage in Lucerne. December 16: conducts in Pest.

1871 The start of his “Vie trifurquee” March 25: concert in the Redoute in Pest, with Janina and Remenyi. March 26: Hungarian Academy of Sciences: Hungarian concert, Liszt conducts the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. April 5: Philharmonic Society concert, conducts works by Hungarian composers. June 13: granted title of Royal Counsellor, with an annual stipend of 4,000 Forints. November 16-December 16: first permanent residence in Pest: Nador utca No. 20.

1872 January 12-April 1: Pest. Also Pozsony. February 4, March 25: Missa choralis in the Inner City Parish Church. September: Wa8n e r ar>d Cosima in Weimar, and reconciliation. October: Liszt in Bayreuth. From November in Hungary: Horpacs, Doborjan, Pest.

1873 January, March: Budapest: concerts. April: Pozsony, Gran Mass. May: the complete Christus Oratorio performed in Weimar, Liszt conducting. Performance of the Wartburglieder in Weimar. From October 30 Budapest, Hal ter (Fish Square) No. 4. November 9: performance of the Christus Oratorio on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Liszt’s artistic career, conducted by Hans Richter, in the Redoute. Morning of the same day: Henrik Gobbi’s ”Liszt Cantata”, the awarding of the gold laurel wreath, the reading of a letter of the establishment of Liszt scholarships by the Municipal Council. Esztergom, Pozsony.

1874 Concerts for charity, Vienna, Sopron, Budapest. March 16: premiere in the Hungaria Hotel of the melodrama by Liszt and Jokai: Des toten Dichters Liebe (Roza Laborfalvy). March 25: conducts his Coronation Mass. In January a guest in Horpacs, in April in Kalocsa. From May 21 to February 9, 1875: Rome.

1875 February U-April 1: Budapest. March 10: Liszt and Wagner’s joint concert at the Redoute: premiere of the Die Glocken des Strassburger Miinsters, Liszt conducting, Beethoven’s ‘Concerto in E flat’ (Liszt), Richter conducting, Wagner conducting his own works. Charity concert and others in Pest. March 30: Trefort confers his appointment as President of the Academy of Music. July-August: Bayreuth, present at the rehearsals. November 14: opening of the Budapest Academy of Music (Hal ter).

1876 February 15-March 30: Budapest. February 27: Hunnenschlacht, first time in Budapest, Philharmonic Society. March 26: first concert of Liszt’s pupils at the Hal ter Academy of Music. July: Sondershausen: Hamlet. August: Bayreuth. From October: Budapest, in between: guest of Augusz at Szekszard, and of Haynald at Kalocsa. In Bayreuth he meets Tchaikovsky.

1877 Up to March 15: Budapest. Several concerts. March 5: Saint Elizabeth, Redoute, Liszt conducting. Le triomphe funebre du Tasse, world premiere: New York, Damrosch conducting. Vienna: plays piano for the benefit of the Beethoven statue. Bayreuth, Weimar—meets Borodin. Villa d’Este. December: due to Liszt “Samson et Dalila” (Saint-Saens) is performed at Weimar. From November in Budapest.

1878 January 20: Die heilige Cacilia, matinee at the Academy of Music on Haynald’s jubilee. March 27: Philharmonic Society: Dante Symphony I, conducted by Sandor Erkel. March 21: plays at the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. March: Saint-Saens’ Liszt concert in Paris: excerpts from Dante and Christus. June 9-19: Paris member of the panel of judges at the World Exhibition (Editions et instruments de musique, classe XIII). August: Bayreuth. From middle of September: Villa d’Este.

1879 January 17-April 2: Budapest. March 12, 14: concerts in Kolozsvar. March 26: concert in the Redoute, for the benefit of the flood victims of Szeged. Vienna, Hannover, Frankfurt, Weimar, Wiesbaden, Sondershausen – his works played here. July 10: performance of Septem sacramenta, Weimar. August: Bayreuth. After that the Villa d’Este to the end of the year. October 12: honorary Canon of Albano.

1880 January: Rome: after January 10: premiere of Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo. Venice, Budapest. February 13: the Philharmonic Society plays Mazeppa. March 11: at the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. March 14: first concert of the new Academy of Music on Sugar ut (Sugar Avenue) with Liszt’s pupils. March: Vienna, his works are played. Weimar, from September the Villa d’Este, at the end of September with the Wagners, Siena (Torre Fiorentina). May 18: Rome, the Doria Pamphili Palace, performance of the Cantantibus organis.

1881 Florence, January 22: Rome, Sala Dante: first performance of Angelus for string orchestra. January 20-April 3: Budapest, Sugar ut. February 14: Billow’s Liszt concert in Pest. March 9: Second Mephisto Waltz, first performed by the Philharmonic Society, conducted by Sandor Erkel, Redoute. March 30: Doborjan: memorial table unveiled. April: Pozsony, Sopron, concerts. Berlin, his works performed. May: made a corresponding member of the Paris Academie des Beaux-Arts. Cologne, Antwerp, Brussels, Weimar. July: falls down the stairs in Weimar. September-October: Bayreuth, Rome. His 70th birthday is celebrated with a concert made up of his works: Rome. October 22: Palazzo Caffarelli: First part of Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe performed (Societa del Quintetto); December 6, Sala Dante: Goethe March, Concerto in A major (Sgambati), Dante Symphony, Hungarian Rhapsody (Societa Orchestrale, conductor Pinelli).

1882 January: Venice. February 4-April 14: Budapest. February 25: presents the Rhapsody No. 16. at a soiree arranged in honour of Munkacsy. Easter: Haynald’s guest at Kalocsa. Weimar, Brussels, Antwerp, Freiburg, Baden-Baden, Zurich: Liszt’s works performed. August: Bayreuth, attends the first five performances of “Parsifal”. Till the middle of November in Weimar, afterwards with Wagner in Venice.

1883 January 14-April 3: Budapest, in between at Szekesfehervar. March 14: Aladar Juhasz performs the Concerto in E flat with the Philharmonic Society. March 18: Pozsony: Saint Elizabeth, Liszt conducting. Vienna, Weimar. May 22: Wagner memorial concert (Wagner’s death: February 13). To the end of the year in Weimar.

1885 Rome, Florence. January 30-April 13: Budapest. In between: Esztergom, Kalocsa, Pozsony. February 27: Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo, Philharmonic Society, Redoute. March 25: Hungarian King’s Song, at an Opera House extraordinary concert. March 28: plays in public for the last time in Budapest, at the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Vienna, Weimar. Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Strasbourg, Antwerp, Aachen, for the performance of his works, etc. Up to September in Weimar, then Munich, Innsbruck, Rome.

1886 Rome, for the last time. Florence, Venice. January 30-March 12: Budapest. March 6: last lesson at the Academy of Music. March 10: Academy of Music, farewell concert. March: Liszt concerts: Liege, Paris. April: London, received by Queen Victoria. April-May: Antwerp, Paris, further concerts. Falls ill. The middle of May: Weimar. June: Sondershausen, Halle to see physician. July: Bayreuth, at the wedding of Daniela von Biilow. Colpach, with the Munkacsys. July 21: Bayreuth, 23: “Parsifal”, 25: “Tristan”. Pneumonia. July 31: Liszt’s death.